Marcy and I ran into Claire and Harald at the Pokémon-Centre counter. They were just stepping back, their Pokémon already turned over, to get checked.

“Your Pokémon will be fine in a bit.” the Pokémon-Centre attendant promised, and I noticed a slightly brittle smile on Claire’s face.

“You alright?” I quietly asked, giving her shoulder a brief squeeze. She gave a quick nod, before stepping aside, letting Marcy and me to the counter.

“Good Morning, how can I help you?” the attendant asked, as we stepped up.

“Same as them, our Pokémon got roughed up.” Marcy told her, nodding towards me. Again, Pokéballs were turned over and the attendant stepped into the back, to have them handled.

“Why don’t we go back to the Gym, Sebastian needs to hear what we have to tell you, after all, his name is going on the Badge.” Harald suggested and I noticed Claire perk up a little at his words.

“How does this work anyway? I thought the Gym-leader would test us?” I asked, curious about the procedure as we had yet to meet the leader.

“The Gym-leader or comptent representatives, yes. Pretty sure Sebastian will explain why he didn’t test you himself. Though, given that we’ve participated in last year’s Conference and were in the area, he decided to ask us to stand in.” Marcy explained, as we walked back into the Gym. She stepped to the counter, looking at the attendant.

“We’re done with the difficult stuff, do you know when Sebastian has time to handle the rest?” she asked, the attendant looking at some papers for a moment.

“You can go through, the second meeting-room is free.” he replied, waving us off.

“Excellent. Move along, kids.” Marcy grinned, while Harald let out a soft sigh.

The meeting-room was similar to the break-room at Professor Rowan’s lab. Marcy told us we could make tea if we so desired, and when I noticed the Dragon’s Blend sitting there, happily making me a mug. Claire, following along, wanted to make one for herself but when I emphatically shook my head, she took a different sort, though she looked at me with a weird expression. Silently mouthing, ‘Later’ she let it go with a shrug.

We all sat down and before the silence could become awkward, the door opened letting another trainer in. His clothes were similar to the simple attire the attendants wore, but appeared to be made from sturdier cloth. The only difference was that he wore a heavy, hooded jacket and a shawl. His dirty-blonde hair was short and yet, it somehow managed to be in disarray. We all stood, showing the proper respect as he entered, only to be waved back down, while he stepped to the coffee-bar. Before speaking, he made himself a cup and sat down.

“Marcy, Harald, good morning.” he greeted the two, before looking at Claire and myself. “And you must be Claire and Dani. It’s rather late, but Welcome to Sandgem-Gym. I’m Sebastian, the Gym-leader.”

“Now, Harald, why don’t you start things off. Which one did you test and how did they do?” he asked, his eyes wandering between the four of us.

“Certainly.” Harald nodded, taking a sip from his cup. “As requested, I tested Claire. She currently is training two Pokémon, after starting her Journey last week. She was unlucky with the match-up, her Starly running into a Geodude I recently caught, with the expected results. She did try to make the best out of it, working defensively and trying to use indirect attacks but ultimately, it was just too much of a disadvantage. Nothing to be done about it, those things happen. To avoid them, most people try to help their Pokémon to learn coverage-moves, or as Marcy and I are currently doing, try to move beyond their preferred typings, even if training those can be much harder.” he explained, getting a nod of understanding from Sebastian, while Claire was carefully listening.

“The second match was less one-sided, with her Turtwig going up against my Glameow. There were a few rough moments, but she managed to direct her Turtwig to use its strengths to full advantage and knocked Vamp out.” There was a look of pride on Claire’s face, while Harald continued.

“Performance-wise, her Pokémon are well-trained and she appears to have excellent rapport with them.” he paused for a moment, directly looking at Claire now. “In the future, you might want to try training them to have a wider range of tricks, but really, that’s a question of time, experience and exposure. Similarly, you might want to look into shortening your commands, in battle, the difference between win and loss can be measured in seconds. To say nothing about obfuscating your intention in Trainer-battles.” he explained and Claire hung her head, dejected.

“That being said, for someone a week out the gate, you did outstanding.” He added, Claire’s head snapping up. “There are parts you have to work on, there always are, but I have no doubt that you’ll have a bright future. I wholeheartedly endorse her receiving the Sand-Badge.” he formally declared, looking at Sebastian, who nodded in response.

“Marcy? Your turn.” Sebastian simply prodded, while Harald leaned back, looking comfortable. Marcy similarly laid out how the fight had gone, giving me a couple things I would have to look into, mostly regarding the choice of tactics I employed. Apparently, I let my Pokémon fight similar to their wild counterparts, which could be an advantage as it meant they were playing to their innate strengths, but left their inante weaknesses open to be exploited. Especially Vio should get more training on the physical side, so that she’d have better chances at dodging and avoiding attacks. Nodding in acceptance, I decided to look into her suggestions. They only made sense and looking back at the battle, there truly were a couple situations that could have been handled better.

“Well, that’s all from me.” She finally concluded and I, too, wanted to hang my head at the mistakes I had made in battle and the apparent inadequacy of my training.

“For the time she spent travelling, she’s excellent, I’ll look forward to facing you next year at the League-Conference. You’ve got some serious potential there, Dani.'' She complimented me, and I felt my cheeks flush red, quickly taking a sip of tea to hide my embarrassment.

“I, Marcy formerly of Snowpoint City, fully endorse the Sand-Badge for Dani.” she added, speaking just as formally as Harald had earlier.

“And that’s two for two.” Sebastian said, standing up, his movement mirrored by us four.

“You completed the task set, despite running into unexpected trouble. I didn’t expect a Bibarel there, or I wouldn’t have set the task for a pair of your experiences. You should let that be a lesson for you, always expect trouble.” he added, reaching into his jacket and pulling out two small, metallic objects. They were shaped the same way, looking like a stylised grain of sand, and he reached out, presenting them to Claire and me.

“I’ll finish up the paperwork in a moment, but for now, have these two. Congratulations, Claire, Congratulations, Dani. You earned this Badge and I wish you success on your continued Journey. You did well.” he added, as Marcy and Harald were giving us polite applause.

“Congratulations, you two. Your first Badge, but it’s not going to be the last one. Both of you have the potential to go far, so keep going. Don’t settle down and end up as Gym-rats, that would be a real shame.” Marcy told us, as the two of us shook our hands.

“If you hand me your League-Cards, I’ll finish the formalities.” Sebastian added and we both handed the cases over, wide grins on our faces.

“Marcy and I need to get going. I’m sure we’ll see the two of you around, if not on the road, then at the Conference some day. Take care and be safe out there..” Harald announced. Marcy added her own “Be safe out there.”

“Be safe out there.” Claire and I replied, as the two walked out, leaving us alone in the meeting-room.

“We did it.” I smiled, letting myself sink back onto the couch. First Badge, acquired.

“We did.” Claire agreed, a silly grin on her face. Such a grin might have been present on my own face, but I would deny such an accusation.

“Now, what’s with that tea? Why did you stop me?” Claire asked, sounding equally offended and curious.

Not replying with words, I offered her my cup, still half-filled with the Dragon’s Blend. She looked a little confused, but on my prompting to try it, she carefully took a sip and froze for a moment, before spitting it back out, into my cup.

“Well, thanks for that.” I snarked, “But thank you for demonstrating why I stopped you.” I added, chuckling to myself. The look on her face, a mixture of horror, disgust, confusion and embarrassment was pure gold.